So I invite you guys to start by closing your eyes.
Settle into your posture a little bit.
Turn your attention inwards.
So you might start to just check in with your body.
Notice how it feels just to be sitting here.
And adjust your posture however you need to so that you are comfortable enough to sit for the next 15 minutes or so.
And drop into the sensations of your body.
And however it feels to be sitting here right in this moment.
You might bring your attention to the soles of your feet,
Your legs,
The weight of your body in your lower half.
Noticing the sitting bones and the pelvis,
The lower back,
The middle and upper back.
And if there's any tension here,
Now is a good time to take a deep breath,
Slowly exhale,
Let go,
And soften.
Bring your attention around to your belly,
Another area that can often be tight and tense.
Deep breath in,
Let it go,
And soften.
Noticing the chest,
Shoulders,
The length of both of your arms,
Palms of your hands,
Fingertips.
Noticing the aliveness that you can feel in your hands,
The gentle pulsing and feeling of blood flow.
Bringing your attention upwards towards your neck,
The throat area.
Deep breath in,
Soften.
Bring your attention to your head,
Your forehead.
Letting the forehead relax and become smooth.
Dropping all the expression from your face.
Relaxing the tiny little muscles around your eyes and eyelids.
Releasing the jaw.
Just getting a felt sense of the whole body just sitting here.
And contrary to what all of us have been doing the rest of the day,
What we're to do here now is absolutely nothing.
Let your body be as it is.
Saying yes to whatever your body is feeling in this moment.
Non-resistance,
Nothing to do,
Nowhere to go,
Nothing to accomplish or fix.
Just let yourself be.
Connect with your breath.
And if you have a hard time staying focused,
A really good practice is to count your breathing.
You can count one,
Two,
Three as you inhale,
And one,
Two,
Three as you exhale.
Just following the breath as it makes its way through the beginning of the inhale,
The middle,
And the end.
As it glides right into the exhale,
The beginning,
The middle,
And the end of the exhale.
Controlling the breath,
Just again,
Allowing it to be.
During this practice,
You will get distracted over and over and over again.
And none of that is a problem.
Distractions are just opportunities and doorways back to the present moment.
And so when you notice you've been lost in some wandering thought stream,
Notice,
Let it be,
And come back to right now.
Feel your body,
Feel your breath.
Might notice at some point some kind of resistance,
Impatience,
Physical discomfort,
Or restlessness.
None of that is a problem.
Just let it be.
Notice where your attention is right now.
Reconnect with the breath as many times as you need to.
Check back in with your body.
In the usual places that you might be carrying tension or that you may have started to tighten a little bit,
The neck,
The shoulders,
The forehead,
The belly,
Take a deep breath and soften back into the moment.
Gentle,
Slow exhale.
And you allow yourself to just be exactly as it is.
Whether there are noises that are distracting you or physical sensations,
Can you let it all just be without feeling the need to control or fix anything about right now?
There's any sort of discomfort or restlessness,
Can you say yes to it?
Following the flow of breath,
Breathing in,
Belly rises,
Breathing out,
Belly falls.
Yes to everything exactly as it is.
You can allow your attention to expand a little bit to notice the sounds around you,
Noticing sounds that are coming from inside the room that you're in and also outside.
And whatever you hear,
Can you say yes to it?
Rather than judging the sounds or wishing that it wasn't here because it's disrupting your meditation.
It's already here,
Allow it to be.
You might allow your attention to just sort of float now from what you can hear,
What you feel physically in your body,
Your breathing,
Any kind of emotional experience that comes up.
You can allow your attention to just land on one thing after the next.
We call this open awareness.
And you do your best to stay present with whatever arises and whatever catches your attention the most,
Moment by moment by moment.
And of course,
Resist nothing and just let it all be.
If that feels overwhelming or too distracting,
The breath is always,
Always your safe place to land.
You can give yourself a moment of gratitude now for showing up,
For practicing,
For taking this time for yourself and making a commitment with and to yourself to do your best to take life as it comes,
To stay present with an open heart and an open mind and to say yes.
You can allow your eyes to open when you're ready.
